‘Naked & Afraid XL’ Production Paused By Discovery For “Creative Refresh”

EXCLUSIVE: Discovery Channel is pausing production on the next season of long-running series Naked and Afraid XL. The Naked and Afraid spinoff is currently airing its tenth season on the cable network but the company said that it is taking a beat before moving into production on season 11.

“We have paused production on the next season of Naked and Afraid XL for a creative refresh with plans to shoot later this year,” a Discovery spokeswoman told Deadline.

The series is produced by Renegade 83, which is part of Lionsgate Alternative Television.

Deadline understands that the success of another spinoff, Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing, has given the producers time to retool Naked and Afraid XL. Production on another season of Last One Standing is now believed to have been moved up as producers go through the Naked and Afraid XL “creative refresh” .

Last One Standing, which features all-star competitors as they compete through brutal challenges over 45 days in order to win a $100,000 cash prize, was Discovery Channel’s highest-rated series in the first half of 2023 and one of its biggest new shows in the last five years. It returns for its second season on July 14.

There had been suggestions that potential industrial action involving IATSE had been one of the factors for Naked and Afraid XL’s delay, but we hear this is not the case.

Naked and Afraid XL is currently airing its tenth season on Discovery Channel, finishing up on June 30. It is a spinoff of the even longer running Naked and Afraid, featuring people surviving in the wilderness for 40 days.

Mothership series Naked and Afraid is currently airing its 17th season and is in active production through August, per Discovery.